Over the last 20 days I have referred to several books that have helped and continue to help me along my journey. Reading, by nature, is not one of my favorite past times. I do not wrap up my day with a good read. I rarely ever stay up late to finish a book. I am usually a chapter a day kinda gal when I am reading a book.
My husband, by nature, is a reader. He is always purchasing books off of Amazon for our iPad or by paperback. He does keep me in the loop concerning the latest books and many of the books I have read over the last 2 years have been by his recommendation.
I never want reading a book to take the place of God's word in my daily time spent with Him. But, I do want to use books to help me glean deeper understanding of Biblical Truths. I do want to use books to help me learn from people who have gone before me and have successfully accomplished whatever it is I am hoping to accomplish.
In January of 2010, our pastor challenged us to read through the Bible in a year as a church. Matt and I began reading through our Bible in conjunction with our church's 12 month guide. The first four almost five months of the plan, I was pregnant. The last 7 months of the plan, I had a newborn. It was a great reading challenge for me. It was a daily commitment. It was just me and God's Word. IT WAS HUGE IN MY LIFE.
I have known Jesus personally for 25 years of my life. I have read the majority of the Bible in those 25 years but there were definitely books that I had never read. I learned to dig deeper into truths I had always known and to ask harder questions concerning what I had always been taught.
For the large majority of the Bible reading journey I was LIMITED by my own personal circumstances, a new baby and a first time mom. But, I made a commitment to read through the Bible in a year and that commitment kept staring me in the face everyday, no matter how tired I was or how many times I had been up the night before. God was LIMITLESS in the truths that He solidified in my heart and mind through that time spent in His Word.
Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. Colossians 3:16
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land theLord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
Deuteronomy 11:18-21
Here are two on-line sources for reading through the Bible in a year. Good news is, you can start at anytime of the year. It does not have to be January 1. I hope you will personally take the challenge. I promise you will be reminded of how LIMITED you are but how LIMITLESS God is through age old stories and truths that are as real and relevant today as they were 2000 plus years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment